Ishi Glinsky at AD&A Museum

Artist: Ishi Glinsky

Exhibition title: Upon a Jagged Maze

Venue: AD&A Museum, Santa Barbara, US

Date: September 1, 2022 – January 22, 2023

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist, Chris Sharp Gallery and AD&A Museum

(Santa Barbara, CA)—The Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara presents the first solo museum exhibition of LA-based artist Ishi Glinsky (b. 1982, Tucson, Arizona – Tohono O’odham). An early career survey covering work made over the past decade, the exhibition features 25 of Glinsky’s works, including painting, works on paper, and mixed-media sculpture. Glinsky’s art draws from the traditions of the Tohono O’odham Nation as well as those of various North American Native arts, such as jewelry making, basketry, and weaving, among others, in order to honor Native Americans’ place in history and art movements. Organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UCSB, the exhibition is on view from September 1, 2022 through January 22, 2023.

“The work of Ishi Glinsky offers viewers a larger-than-life invitation to engage with the Native arts of North America and learn about the rich cultural history and present-day challenges facing Indigenous peoples. Utilizing monumental scale and found materials, his work honors the resourcefulness, beauty, and importance of these Native art forms while simultaneously asserting their place within Contemporary Art. The AD&A Museum is thrilled to be organizing Ishi’s first solo museum exhibition, and hope it opens his practice up to new audiences and the institutional recognition it deserves,” said AD&A Museum Director Gabriel Ritter.

For the Tohono O’odham, “The Man in the Maze” represents the people’s emergence upon earth, but more broadly also reflects paths taken throughout life and beyond. With the title Upon a Jagged Maze, artist Ishi Glinsky reflects on his personal journey through his evolving artistic practice. Glinsky approaches moments in history, art history, and the presentation of physical objects as endeavors of engagement and care that comprise his path. His journey of understanding is also embedded in the experience of this exhibition. As Glinsky explains, “The viewer can actively track twists and turns I’ve taken in mediums and processes thus far, intended to honor indigenous knowledge in new spaces and viewed in new ways. Throughout Upon a Jagged Maze, there are moments meant to open the door for further discussion or understanding.” This early career survey of Glinsky’s art will present an overview of his artistic output thus far, including work from 2009 to the present.

Ishi Glinksy was born in Tucson, AZ in 1982, but has resided and worked in Los Angeles, CA for the past sixteen years. As a sculptor, painter, and installation artist, Glinsky focuses on aspects of resourcefulness, permanence and continuity, based upon his material compositions. Materiality and intertribal cultural celebrations are central to this focus, while Glinsky explores a range of historical pieces, both major events and ephemera, across Native North America. A fusion of the past with contemporary art, Glinsky is a mostly self-taught artist who observes both the techniques of his people of the Tohono O’odham Nation, as well as the traditions of other Native nations in a celebration of interconnectivity and survival of those practices. Through techniques based in scale and verisimilitude, Glinsky acknowledges craft traditions as fine art forms.

Ishi Glinsky, Upon a Jagged Maze, 2022, exhibition view, AD&A Museum, Santa Barbara

Ishi Glinsky, Custer’s Calvary, 2013, Resin, oil stick, pigment, 96” X 48”, Forge Project Collection, traditional lands of the Muh-he- con-ne-ok

Ishi Glinsky, Upon a Jagged Maze, 2022, exhibition view, AD&A Museum, Santa Barbara

Ishi Glinksy, Tray, 2014, Oxidized rebar wire, 26″ x 26″ x 10.5″, Collection of the artist

Ishi Glinsky, Upon a Jagged Maze, 2022, exhibition view, AD&A Museum, Santa Barbara

Ishi Glinksy, White Basket, 2017, Oxidized rebar wire, acrylic spray paint 8” x 8” x 4”, Collection of Roberto Cowan & Salima Boufelfel

Ishi Glinksy, Tray, 2014, Oxidized rebar wire, 26″ x 26″ x 10.5″, Collection of the artist

Ishi Glinsky, Raining Warriors, 2019, Horse hair, wood, astro turf, canvas, wool, cotton, glass beads, PVC, steel, acrylic paint, ink, 47” x 20” x 12” (warrior on left), 45 1⁄2” x 31” x 12” (Warrior on right), Collection of Ken Kajima

Ishi Glinsky, Dead Weight, 2020, Ink and wax pastel on canvas, 63” x 117.5″, Forge Project Collection, traditional lands of the Muh-he- con-ne-ok

Ishi Glinsky, Giant Breastplate, 2009, Found antiqued chain link, hand sculpted PVC pipes, brass pipe, hand painted washers, skeleton keys, skateboard wheels, 158” x 78”, Collection of Roberto Cowan & Salima Boufelfel